Last week, after tucking our children into bed, I heard someone crying down the hall. I tiptoed to my kid’s room and discovered that Adelé was weeping. I cautiously opened the door and paused the audio book. We had begun listening to the, “Jesus Storybook Bible” and were working our way through the scriptures. I asked my daughter what was upsetting her and she told me this: Jesus had died.

My seven-year-old daughter was in tears because God’s son had been killed by men who hated him. I tried to console my daughter by reminding her that we had read this story before and that we knew Jesus would defeat death. None of this mattered because none of this was the true source of her tears. “Dad,” she told me, “Jesus was on the cross and asked his Daddy to save him and he didn't.” Her eyes began to well up once more, “God just let Jesus die on the cross… he left him there alone.”

Adelé had been struck with the true sacrifice of Jesus: that He suffered a moment of eternal rejection. She understood that Jesus died dejected and alone. She saw that the price Jesus paid for us was far more than a torturous demise: Jesus paid the price of sin; the wages of which are death eternal, a forever rejection from our father God. This is what broke my daughters heart that evening. She understood what Jesus had truly suffered on the cross.

The passion of Jesus became real to my seven-year-old. She empathized with the sacrifice of Jesus in a way she will never forget. I was humbled by her recognition and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit who revealed the true price that Jesus paid for each of us. It is something I hope to never forget again.